So great is Laurence Olivier's reputation as an actor, that it is easy to forget that he was also a director, albeit of only five films, the last of which is rather obscure. His main achievements as a director lie in his three Shakespeare adaptations, beginning with 1944's Henry V, or, The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France to give the film its full on-screen title.
Olivier started his career on the stage and reportedly had a lukewarm attitude to cinema early on in his film career. So it is doubly remarkable that given the opportunity to bring Henry V to the screen he did so in such a striking fashion. It starts off as filmed theatre, and then sees Olivier shift to making a film within a play within a film. Ingeniously, the film opens with what is essentially a framing sequence in which Shakespeare's new play Henry V is performed at the Globe theatre in 1600, interspersed with sequences of the play's story in the build up to the Battle of Agincourt. It thus manages to literally be filmed theatre (to the extent that we see behind the scenes costume changes and actors prompting each other when they miss their cues), whilst transcending that to exploit the cinematic medium. The play is initially badly performed, with Felix Aylmer's "Archbishop of Canterbury" dropping his script all over the stage, forgetting his lies and causing the audience to roar with laughter.
Winston Churchill ordered Olivier to make the film a morale boost for the British public near the end of World War II, and so Oliver omits some of Shakespeare's nastier actions attributed to the king when he adapted Shakespeare's script with Dallas Bower and Alan Dent and the result is resolutely patriotic portrayal, in keeping with Churchill's desires. In contrast to Oliver's subsequent dark, introspective, expressionist Hamlet, this is bright, bold and brash and filmed in glorious Technicolor. The British Government partly funded the production, and it shows in the lavish sets and brightly coloured costumes. The opening model shot has aged surprisingly well; it's obviously a model, but it's impressively detailed.
This strange hybrid of theatre and film uses many of the tools of the latter, with cinematography from Jack Hildyard and Robert Krasker that makes use of tracking shots, aerial shots and wide-angles that would be impossible on the stage. We also get use of voiceovers when Henry is reflecting, instead of him speaking his lines aloud, a conceit that Olivier would reuse in Hamlet. There is even occasional use of special effects. In contrast to the largely stage-bound scenes of the play within the film, the actual recreation of the Battle of Agincourt is shot on location in Ireland and features hundreds of locals as extras, some providing their own horses. It's impressively staged and shot, with a lengthy scene of cavalry galloping into battle, the camera keeping pace with them as they do so. The camera at times gets into the thick of battle; by this point, the film has entirely burst the boundaries of what could be achieved in a theatre, all accompanied by a rousing classical score by composer Sir William Walton.
The film's visual flair shouldn't detract from the performances. In the midst of demonstrating for the first time that he was a better film director than anyone might have expected, Olivier also demonstrates how to perform Shakespeare like a master, with the aid of a cast of British stage and screen luminaries of the time that includes Felix Aylmer, Max Adrian and Robert Newton. The film reportedly ran for nearly a year in London and broke numerous records and it is easy to see why: this is not just an example of how to successfully bring Shakespeare to a cinema audience; it is a masterpiece of cinema.
Olivier started his career on the stage and reportedly had a lukewarm attitude to cinema early on in his film career. So it is doubly remarkable that given the opportunity to bring Henry V to the screen he did so in such a striking fashion. It starts off as filmed theatre, and then sees Olivier shift to making a film within a play within a film. Ingeniously, the film opens with what is essentially a framing sequence in which Shakespeare's new play Henry V is performed at the Globe theatre in 1600, interspersed with sequences of the play's story in the build up to the Battle of Agincourt. It thus manages to literally be filmed theatre (to the extent that we see behind the scenes costume changes and actors prompting each other when they miss their cues), whilst transcending that to exploit the cinematic medium. The play is initially badly performed, with Felix Aylmer's "Archbishop of Canterbury" dropping his script all over the stage, forgetting his lies and causing the audience to roar with laughter.
Winston Churchill ordered Olivier to make the film a morale boost for the British public near the end of World War II, and so Oliver omits some of Shakespeare's nastier actions attributed to the king when he adapted Shakespeare's script with Dallas Bower and Alan Dent and the result is resolutely patriotic portrayal, in keeping with Churchill's desires. In contrast to Oliver's subsequent dark, introspective, expressionist Hamlet, this is bright, bold and brash and filmed in glorious Technicolor. The British Government partly funded the production, and it shows in the lavish sets and brightly coloured costumes. The opening model shot has aged surprisingly well; it's obviously a model, but it's impressively detailed.
This strange hybrid of theatre and film uses many of the tools of the latter, with cinematography from Jack Hildyard and Robert Krasker that makes use of tracking shots, aerial shots and wide-angles that would be impossible on the stage. We also get use of voiceovers when Henry is reflecting, instead of him speaking his lines aloud, a conceit that Olivier would reuse in Hamlet. There is even occasional use of special effects. In contrast to the largely stage-bound scenes of the play within the film, the actual recreation of the Battle of Agincourt is shot on location in Ireland and features hundreds of locals as extras, some providing their own horses. It's impressively staged and shot, with a lengthy scene of cavalry galloping into battle, the camera keeping pace with them as they do so. The camera at times gets into the thick of battle; by this point, the film has entirely burst the boundaries of what could be achieved in a theatre, all accompanied by a rousing classical score by composer Sir William Walton.
The film's visual flair shouldn't detract from the performances. In the midst of demonstrating for the first time that he was a better film director than anyone might have expected, Olivier also demonstrates how to perform Shakespeare like a master, with the aid of a cast of British stage and screen luminaries of the time that includes Felix Aylmer, Max Adrian and Robert Newton. The film reportedly ran for nearly a year in London and broke numerous records and it is easy to see why: this is not just an example of how to successfully bring Shakespeare to a cinema audience; it is a masterpiece of cinema.